Move to commercialise breast milk

[emad]

A US firm is looking to commercialise breast milk by selling it to hospitals for the treatment of sick babies.

Prolacta Bioscience, a small company just outside Los Angeles, also wants to carry out research to develop breast milk-based therapies.

Breast milk, with its minerals, digestive enzymes and antibodies, has long been credited with keeping babies healthy and boosting intelligence.

But experts said it would put pressure on mothers to sell their milk.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4744651.stm

GREAT! A C-section please doctor, and four pints of Gold Top.....

[Taxloss]

1. Yikes!

This is like the hair-selling thing - creepy.

[mike_c]

2. next up-- patents....

eom

[Dora]

4. I don't think breast milk is patentable

But the processing and post-breast packaging on the other hand... I see some patent potential there.

[Southpaw Bookworm]

9. I don't know -- look at Monsanto

In India, they've been patenting varities of rice that have grown there for thousands of years and suing farmers who then grow it. Why not breastmilk?

[Hav]

3. .

As we just recently had a discussion about men being able to nurse babies with their nipples...
*looks down* hm nah..

[Dora]

5. Women have sold their milk for ages

From wikipedia:

A wet nurse is a woman who nurses a baby that is not her own. A wet nurse may be employed if the birth mother of a baby is unable to breast-feed her infant for a variety of reasons. Some reasons may include the use of certain drugs (prescription or illegal), illness, or inoperative breasts. Wet nurses have also been required following multiple births where the mother has proved incapable of adequately nursing all of the children herself.

In the past, members of higher classes would have their children wet-nursed. This is an outgrowth of an old tradition -- noblewomen would not breast-feed, and could become pregnant again sooner, to ensure an heir, if they were not nursing their infants.

Some women would become pregnant in times when wet nurses were still in use. Once the children were born, they would kill the child (infanticide)and then capitalize off of their lactating abilities.

Through the recent widespread availability of infant formula, wet nurses are not needed in developed nations and, therefore, are not common in such countries. The use of a wet nurse is still a common practice in many developing countries.

Though it is not widely known in developed countries, a woman who has never been pregnant may produce milk. Through frequent stimulation of the areolae and nipples, a woman may begin lactating and, therefore, be able to nurse. This ability also enables women who have previously been pregnant to nurse children to whom they did not give birth.

I could consider selling my milk.

[cyberswede]

6. Breast milk can be donated, too.

I donated to the Mothers Milk Bank at our hospital when my youngest was nursing. I produced more than she consumed, so I donated it for premies and sick babies, or those whose mothers were unable to breastfeed. There were restrictions on those who could donate (non-smoking, not on medication, etc.), and they pasteurized the milk before giving it to the recipients. I don't think it's creepy. :)

Too bad there aren't more Milk Banks nation wide, then there would be less need to commercialize it.

thx - cs

[Dora]

7. We have a milk bank where I live

I'll give them my frozen stock after my baby has weaned.

I was thinking about wet nursing earlier this morning before I saw this thread. My husband is a musician, and he played in a lounge last night. He told me this morning he'd never seen so many "rubber duckies," or women with breast implants. It made me wonder about women who get implants before they have children - if they can't lactate because of the implants, then they must use formula. Meanwhile, more and more people are beginning to see the benefits of breastfeeding - I wondered if we are about to enter a new age of wet nursing?

And this article popped up...

Huh.

[flordehinojos]

8. oh, please!